Thankful for Thanksgiving

This year Susan and I are so thankful to celebrate Reagan’s first thanksgiving. We are so thankful for our happy and healthy little baby girl. She amazes us each and every day. As excited as we are to charge into Reagan’s first holiday season, we must also embrace the sorrow that comes with first holiday’s without my Mom.

I can’t even express in words how sad I am to face the holiday season without my mom.  Out of a lifetime of being loving, Mom really shined over the holidays. From October through December she had kids and grandkids’ birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. All special days which revolve around Mom’s specialties, cooking and gifts.  Therefore I can’t help but feel sadness during this time, much like my siblings, their families, our extended families, close friends, those missing their pecan pie, and those who will not receive their little personalized gift in their Barton mailbox this year. Fortunately Mom left us so many reasons to be thankful.  

I am thankful for the memory of last thanksgiving. Mom hadn’t hosted a thankgiving in years. And even when she had it kind of dwindled into the smallest remainder of our family. But last year, Mom’s condo was filled wall to wall with love. At dinnertime, the table literally stretched wall to wall. Mom really put on something special last year. At one table she had her children, grandchildren, close friends and family. We actually had to move her living room furniture into the bedroom to fit the banquet table she bought just for that day. Mom worked way harder than she should have and would only accept our help if we gave her no other option. Mom, who hates crowds of people, was so happy to have crowded her condo with so much love. It was the perfect day. Even when Bailey came out of the master bedroom (a.k.a. pie storage) with a beard of pumpkin pie on his face, Mom was unphased.  She was probably just happy that poor Bailey was finally able to eat some people food. I’m so thankful that Mom decided to host last year. I’m so thankful so many of us were together. I’m so thankful for that wonderful Thanksgiving.

I’m just as thankful for the thanksgiving the year before. Mom came to my house and had thanksgiving dinner prepared for her by her baby and his wife mere months after their nuptials. When you’re the baby of the family, I think you’re always the baby. It doesn’t matter what you do, how old you get, or what you have accomplished. You’re the baby. Well two years ago Mom sat at our table, set with our wedding china, in our home, with a dinner prepared by her youngest and his bride and hopefully was able to take comfort in seeing her baby was grown up enough to host thanksgiving. Everything tasted wonderfully and was the perfect output of Susan and I working together.

I have 28 more thanksgiving stories (including a complete thanksgiving at a campsite) that I will spare you.  I will say that perhaps what I am most thankful for is the years of learning I had under Mom’s tutelage teaching me the ins and outs of making special days special. I promise to do my best Mom.

Susan, Reagan, Bailey, Micki, and I would like to wish you all a happy thanksgiving. We hope your day is filled with love, family, friends, and memories of special days you have all shared. Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours.